September Holiday: Day 5

Still catching up with our September holiday, almost two weeks after it. Today, we are looking back at a day almost three weeks ago - Saturday, the 19th.

Needless to say, it was another sunny day, and the warmest of our holiday as far as I remember. At a total of aobut 20 km, it was also going to be the longest of our hikes during that holiday, and took us through much varied landscapes and natural beauty.

A short bus ride took us to a parking lot near the end of the valley. Steadily going uphill without it being very steep, we soon reached the impressive rock walls called Scheuenwände, and then the waterfall. 

After a dry summer, the waterfall was not quite as abundant as it would be at other times of the year, but it was still impressive - the water comes down a sheer drop from a high plateau, where we were going to go next.

O.K. made this video which I hope will work for you:

We explored around the waterfall for a while before moving on. The signposted path - if you could call it that - lead directly across the rocks in the bed of the small stream, so it was good that there was not all that much water coming down.

Much to my dismay, the path lead us back downhill for quite a bit before climbing back up - all the height we had already gained was "lost"! The path across the lush green meadows was beautiful, though, and not difficult.

And finally, we reached the plateau, a high moor. Signs warned everyone to stay on the paths, not to pick any plants and of course not to leave any rubbish; the area is protected and very important as the boggy ground acts as a natural water reserve.

Also, at a certain point on top of the plateau, raindrops coming down a few meters to the left or to the right will end up in either the North Sea or the Black Sea - the European Watershed is here, and I remember well how impressed I was learning about that as a little girl in elementary school.

Leaving the plateau, a comfortable path lead through woodland down to an Alpe (hut) that was out of business but had conveniently placed a crate of bottled drinks such as beer, water and lemonade outside in a water trough. We bought a bottle of beer and lemonade from there, mixing our own shandy in O.K.'s empty bottle. It wasn't as cold as we would have liked it to be, but still a welcome refreshment.

From there back to the parking lot where we'd started did not take all that long. Looking at the timetable, we had the choice between waiting over half an hour for the bus - or walk back to the hotel along the stream at the bottom of the valley. Guess what we did!

Arriving at the hotel, we were still just in time for coffee and then decided to shower and rest in our room instead of going to the spa. We were tired and hungry enough to go to dinner real early at 6:00, and then back to our room for another good night's sleep.